The normal developmental process
of a teenager is built upon a mastery of their bodies, their minds, and their
environment. This process known as adolescence is essential to the development
of a healthy sense of self, and the ability to successfully interact with
themselves and their environment. In this paper I will examine the lives
of 2 teenagers who substituted some of the traditional roles of adolescence
with computers and the Internet as their primary link to the world, with disastrous
results.

A computer is just a tool. When software is loaded,
the computer performs a task. There is nothing particularly remarkable about
this. A solitary computer while individually powerful has very little interaction
with anyone beside its primary user. It is only when a computer is connected
to the Internet does it truly appeal to a teenager. Once connected to the
Internet the computer enables a teenager to take advantage of all the myriad
communication outlets available. These outlets cover a huge variety of interests
and technical implementations from MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer On-Line Role
Playing Games) to simpler chat systems like IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and
MUDS/MOO (Multi User Dungeon/MUD Object Oriented) to AOL’s family of real-time
chat systems (Instant Messenger, ICQ). Besides these fairly well known applications,
there are dozens of other software applications designed to permit users to
communicate in almost any conceivable technical manner in almost any combination
of race, age, gender or era. It is by using this infinite variety of possibilities
that a teenager can substitute the normal process of adolescence

A computer, like a teenager, needs to learn how
to perform a task. In a computer, the process of learning is called programming.
In a teenager the process is called socialization. A computer is programmed
by creating a series of machine language instructions that are executed by
the computer’s microprocessor. Normally, however a computer is programmed
through the use of a high level language such as C, or C++. This high level
language abstracts the internal hardware of the machine such that the learning
curve is easier to surmount. Another piece of software called the compiler
accepts inputs from a high level language and outputs machine language code
ready to be run.

A teenager is programmed by their interactions with
themselves, their peers and their own environment. The normal healthy interaction
between a person and their environment is a cyclical process that is built
on constant feedback, awareness and validation of this environment. Howard
Gardener describes life and learning as a series of multidisciplinary plateaus,
and that each plateau has a certain amount of experience that must be achieved
before reaching the next plateau. Regardless of which intellectual discipline
is the strongest this process of challenging, meeting the challenging, and
reaching a new level is a positive feedback loop, one that is strengthened
over the course of a life. This is the manner in which teenagers are socialized
with how to deal with their environment

Normally, introducing a computer into the life of
a teenager is a fairly benign occurrence. A teenager can use it for homework,
for recreation, for chatting with friends and for a number of other applications
that have yet to be written. However, if this teenager is suffering from
a lack of self-esteem, self-confidence, and assertiveness; the opportunity
to interact with other people using any of the previously mentioned methods
seems like an incredible opportunity. This computing device becomes a portal
to communicate with other people in much the same way the telephone was a
generation ago. This computer will encourage the teenager to personify it,
to idolize it, and to treat it like a friend. The computer acts as a best
friend and confidant that is always with them when they search for interaction
with others. The normal process of success and failure that is normally supplied
by the teenage environment is replaced with a constant stream of validation
that is supplied via the computer. It will also encourage the teenager to
impose his or her will on it, and to remake the computer in his or her own
image. If a teenager has an obsession for Anime characters, then it is very
likely their computer will be named accordingly. If the teenager has a crush
for a particular media icon then it is very likely that the machine will display
images of this person as the wallpaper.

The computer acts as combination foster parent,
companion, and best friend that will not harass the teenager about any of
their sensitive issues or attack their self esteem, and will not force them
to socialize with anyone, until they want to. The normal social circumstances
of a teenager are such that it is uncomfortable to go out and meet people.
If this teenager has any issues with his self-confidence or his self-esteem
he will find it absolutely impossible to make the effort to break free of
the computer and interact with the world. Instead of having a series of learning
plateaus in interacting with others and making a large number of mistakes,
they avoid all of the mistakes that teach the meaning of failure and success.
The computer acts as a crutch and enables a teenager to continue to interact
on a deeper level while never gaining the self-confidence and understanding
from earlier successes to enable him to succeed. Even in the cases where
the teenager manages to succeed at interacting with others, their sense of
accomplishment and reward is likely to be limited.

During the research for this paper, I discovered
a number of correlations between a lack of self-confidence and excessive computer
use by a teenager. The teenager will have very low self-confidence, and will
be plagued by feelings of insecurity, loss, regret, anger, hatred and will
generally dislike being around anyone who isn’t a computer, or who hasn’t
had the same experience as them.

My interviews of the subjects seems to indicate
that they are very poorly educated as they tended to avoid the structure of
regular academic assignments to pursue what they felt like doing. “While
they may have a great knowledge of their individual subject, they rarely achieve
any deep understanding of it.” (Gardener)

It appears that as a side effect of imposing their
will onto this device for so many years has left a predisposition towards
sadomasochistic violence against the opposite sex. If the teenager was a
male, then he almost certainly possessed electronic pornographic images of
females being bound, tortured, or killed. If the teenager was a female,
then she would have images of transgender, or feminized men catering to her
every need. The image of demasculated men, was one that held particular attraction
to her.

The final observation that I noted of all the subjects
was the incredible difficulty interacting with anyone that wasn’t a computer.

“Real life people would say I am quiet and reserved. Online people would
describe me as bizarre and probably an asshole. Do you find that your exposure
to talking to people online has helped or hindered your ability to relate
to people? Hindered my ability to relate to people I don't meet online. ­Gibbler”

“Depends on who's describing me; I'm far more extroverted among people like
myself (programmers, gamers, others with shared interests.) I'm not quite
introverted among other types of people--I just don't have much to say, and
this probably comes across as introversion. ­RevZ00T”

“Do you find that your exposure to talking to people online has helped or
hindered your ability to relate to people?

“I couldn't say, since I've been talking to people online for almost as long
as I can remember. It's probably had a major part in the above, though. ­RevZ00T”

“Eh, not for the most part. I can deal with people, even though I really
don't want to (is that a problem?). When it comes to dealing with women on
any personal level, forget about it. It is something that I have no experience
in, coupled with something I have no intrest in, creates something that I
am at unease about. ­Dipstick”

“Many things, because I tend to always change my
personality to fit a situation. I seem stupid to some, a jerk to others,
suave. Some people tend to think I am mean, though. But I always try to
be polite.—Jim.”

I interviewed a number of subjects for this paper,
but I will only discuss 2 of them in detail. My first subject is a twenty-six
year old male who is currently employed as a network engineer for an ISP.
He prefers to be called g0d and would not release his real name. He is currently
single, and is getting over the breakup with a woman that he appeared to care
for very deeply. When asked if he had ever sought professional psychiatric
help for any of his complaints, he stated that:

He describes himself as extremely introverted.
When he was out with his last girlfriend he said that they would fight because
he would act like a clown, and that he did not know how to act in social situations.
He said that it felt like he was being lead around, and he thought it was
“cool.” He describes his early computer use as follows:

“I discovered computers at an early age. I remember very clearly sinking
into them at the age of 12, and finding an avenue in them that I couldn’t
find anywhere else. I found this wonderful machine that didn’t care that
I was fat, and I that I sounded funny. I got into a lot of trouble for hacking
into university computers and. I had a lot of things that I did, I was always
collecting pornography, and working on whatever thing was new and illegal
at the time. I liked to think that I was smarter than everyone else I knew,
and it was fun. It was fun being an obnoxious braggart and being an asshole.
I thought this was what I was supposed to be in life. My ignorant parents
told me that I was smart kid, so I acted like a smart kid. I took it as a
challenge to attack and abuse every authority figure that was set out to me.
I found the way to do that through computers. I thought that this was the
way that life was meant to be, until I met someone that proved me completely
wrong. ­ g0d”

“g0d” appeared to be convinced that he was intellectually
superior to everyone he met and apparently had little problem finding legitimate
and illegitimate work throughout his life. I asked him how he was able to
pay for all the computers and hardware he owned and made various allusions
about leading a life of a criminal mastermind. It would appeal to him being
feared, and respected primarily because it was attention that was sorely missing
in his personal life. It was difficult to tell when he was lying, or telling
the truth because “g0d” appears to believe what he is saying. Has he become
so used to imposing his will on this machine that he now believes that his
will has manifested in the real world? Over the course of four interviews,
I was subjected to a disturbing amount of pornographic material that he would
provide as answers to my questions. He could be jocular at times, even funny,
but if he made a joke, and I laughed at it too strongly he would get suspicious
and think I was laughing at him.

I visited the place where “g0d”
lives and it was a basement apartment somewhere in Manhattan. It was a small
studio apartment with a kitchenette. The overwhelming noise of fans, and
computer power supplies of computers was everywhere. There were pizza boxes
on the floor, and the place was decorated in a style that can only be described
as hacker-noir-meets-tornado. I had to walk around still unopened boxes of
computer hardware, software and blank CD’s. He made numerous comments about
having hacked DVD, Dreamcast, Sega, and PC hardware, and that he would decrypt
software for fun. He did not believe that he could be caught or prosecuted
for any of this because what he was doing was perfectly legal. If I would
press him on this issue he would come up with a vague statement about his
criminal abilities would always keep him one step away from the law.

My final conversation with “g0d”
took place at a cafe on a recent Sunday in New York. He expressed being somewhat
sorry for putting one of his “h4x04 p33pz” (Hacker friends) in the hospital
after forcing him to drink too much at a bar. He continually repeated that
he was sorry for what had happened to his girlfriend, and that he still loved
her deeply. He looked pale, and had appeared to have lost some weight.
He paid the tab with a hundred-dollar bill (for a $10.50 order) and scurried
out. A few days later I received the following email from him.

“I am Mr. Ego and I am your best friend or at least I try to be. You can
find me every morning in that subtle little voice that tells you every morning
to keep sleeping a little bit more. Later when you wake up I tell you to
take it easy that there is no hurry, lets have a long breakfast and enjoy
ourselves. The day belongs to us.

Once you leave home and are in school or at work, I will
ask you. What are you doing here? This is a waste of time and of course
you will oblige me and will always try to accommodate me, leaving as soon
as possible with the least attachment whether it be at work or at school.

Achievement is my worst enemy and often say that only losers
are my followers. From the dawning of civilization I always prepared to dwell
on weak minds. Persons with clear willpower, defined priorities and those
who always manage to accomplish what they set on their hearts, do not get
along with me at all.

I have to be in command; I do not leave room for reasoning, sense of direction
in life, or purpose. I am in command, and when those poor souls complain
of failure in life, I always show them to keep relaxed with alcohol or drugs.
They are my followers and the only way they have to escape my control, is
running away from me, not listening to my whisperings and keeping themselves
busy all the time and beginning to enjoy the fruits and rewards of keeping
busy and fruitful life.

However those are a select few the rest have no
purpose in life. By the time they discovered their error it is just too late
to go back to the past. Parents are not around anymore to support them,
and they are totally handicapped in their relationships with other humans,
since I forced them to be in isolation much of the time, and he or she does
not know how to interact with others.

Usually I am associated with bad luck, depression, lack of friends, loneliness,
or a possessed spirit.

How little humans know about me. I do not sleep. I am awake 24 hours a
day. Certain mystics call me “The Mind” or the fantasy. I agree with them
when they say that I am almost impossible to control. Lucky those who Lucky
are those who know the secret of over imposing their will over my power.

They are called the enlightened ones. The ones who meditate about me; they
strip me naked to my bare bones all the time looking for specific answers
about where this road will lead me; if I follow your advice.

These enlightened ones, really put me on the spot and I have to behave very
carefully with my answers to them, if I dare to give them a suggestion.

They are all highly disciplined persons. They usually get up in the morning,
early at the same time as well as going to bed. They keep clear track of
their actions and where those actions have taken them.

I have no room in their lives.” ­g0d

I have not heard from him since,
and he has not replied to any of the emails that I have sent to his email
address. In fact the email server is refusing to deliver them now, as it
claims the account doesn’t exist. If “g0d” has indeed done something rash,
he may be very difficult to track down.

My second interview subject was
a 17 year old female who goes under the hacker alias “Trinitee.” Unfortunately
she did not consent to be quoted in this paper. She is a female of Columbian
descent who is currently in the United States on a student visa. She mentioned
studying Computer Science in another year when she applies for college. She
is currently involved in a steady relationship with a man 3 years her elder
and confesses that she is really in love with him. She describes her interactions
after coming to this country as very positive and that she dated numerous
times since then.

She describes her family life as being troubled
because there was always some kind of conflict between her mother and her
father and her regarding various trivial issues. She distinctly recalled
her father’s controlling behavior of her mother. She also mentioned that
she had a tremendous number of problems in school and dealing with her parents
who she thought did not love her. She said that she also spent an enormous
amount of time online on IRC and made a lot of deviant friendships with strangers
that resulted in a number of bizarre sexual activities at the early age of
12 and 13. She has no ambition to study and she described herself as a loser.

She said that her early interactions with the computers
did not help her socialize when she emigrated to the United States as she
did not have the skills to know when people were trying to take advantage
of her. It was difficult for her to get used to the notion that people deliberately
trying to take advantage of her because of her gender.

In a rare moment of parental unity,
her parents sent her to study in the United States with the hope of helping
her change her behavior. She related that it was a traumatizing experience
coming to the United States at the age of 16 and having no immediate family
with the exception of her aunt and uncle.

However, instead of having the immediate outlet
of her computer and Internet access; Her aunt and uncle sent her to a regular
high school and closely monitored her interaction with her friends. After
6 months of difficult acclimation she began to date and slowly began to understand
the socialization associated with growing up as a teenager who had to interact
with others based on who she really was, not who she pretended to be online.

In conclusion, I found that letting teenagers with
any type of self-esteem or self-confidence problem having any type of unmonitored
computer and Internet use was simply a recipe for disaster. “g0d” could
have had the opportunity to lead a normal fulfilling life if his parents would
taken the kind of risk that “Trinitee’s” parents did. It appears obvious
that if “Trinitee” was not forced to interact with peers her own age she would
have ended up in “g0d’s” shoes within a matter of years. Their story is a
warning to future generations about the risks of unrestrained technological
advancement among our young run amok.

Bibliography

The Disciplined Mind, What All Students Should Understand. Howard
Gardener June 1, 2000